All of the island’s local authorities have now announced their rates for the coming financial year.

Topping the leader board is Douglas with an increase of 17p to 462 pence in the pound, closely followed by Ramsey at 445p - a rise of 30p.

Rates are expressed in terms of pence in the pound - this current system based on a 1969 valuation of all the property in the island at that time.

Any properties built or improved since 1969 are compared to a similar property that was in existence at that time and attributed a similar value. That value is in pounds.

So a house with a rateable value of £100 would pay £100 x 445p - £445 - in Douglas for example.

With so many authorities citing costs beyond their control as reasons for such steep increases (such as funding community pools), how are some authorities managing to keep their rates so low?

The chair of Port St Mary Commissioners (which saw a 1.43% increase) says it’s down to ’careful spending’.

’You just cut your cloth accordingly,’ said Bernadette Williams.

’We have several projects throughout the coming year that are already in the pipeline - resurfacing the boat park, replacing the flooring in the children’s playground, [and] maintenance of garages that are owned by the commissioners and rented out.’

She added: ’And you do try to keep it as low as you can whilst still investing in the village and keeping it [up] as best you possibly can’.

’I’m sure people would like more, and yes you could have more, but then you’re going to pay more’.

Marown froze their rates this year. Commissioner Alison Lynch said: ’Back in 2020 when we set our budget when had quite a hike of 9.33%.

’We weren’t popular, we were probably very unpopular with parishioners - even though our rate is still low in comparison with some other parts of the island.’

Asked how much the rate freeze was motivated by remaining in favour with the parishioners, and how much the board’s perception of this influenced decision making, Mrs Lynch said: ’No, it doesn’t. We don’t make decisions to be popular, we make decisions for the best of the parish.

As much as Marown and other parishes across the island don’t want to increase their rates, we don’t do this job to make friends - we do it to run the parish facilities to the best of our ability.

Ramsey introduced a very small increase last year (just under 1%), but made a significant 7.23% increase this year.

By freezing rates rather than introducing smaller, incremental increases over the course of several years, are these authorities running the risk of inducing a more dramatic change in future years?

Mrs Lynch responded: ’I can understand that question, and some people may think that’s a good idea, but what we don’t want to be doing is [have] a big reserve sat in the bank account.

’We just want enough money from ratepayers to be able to run the facilities within Marown Parish and keep the parish in the good order that it’s in for the next 12 months.

’If we suddenly find that during the next 12 months we have a capital expenditure project, that will be put on hold until the following year and discussed at the next budget meeting.’

Ramsey Commissioners’ finance lead Juan McGuinness says caution during the worst of the pandemic has led to their 30p rise.

’Whilst I understand the decision made last year because we were in a pandemic, I think that is resulting in a higher than we would like rate rise this year,’ he said.

While the headline rates are important, there can be hidden costs that they don’t show.

For instance, Braddan introduced a ’bin tax’ this year, which is an additional cost to residents that doesn’t show up on the table.

The rate changes for all authorities are as follows:

Andreas - 118p (2021) to 126p (2022), which represents a 6.78% increase.

Arbory and Rushen - 136p to 147, 8.09%

Ballaugh - 120p to 122p, 1.67%

Braddan - 224p to 230p, 2.68%

Bride - 60p to 62p, 3.33%

Castletown - 304p to 312p, 2.63%

Douglas - 451p to 468p, 3.77%

Garff (Laxey, Lonan, Maughold) - 143p to 152p, 6.29%

German - rate freeze at 93p

Jurby - 119p to 125p, 5.04%

Lezayre - rate freeze at 97p

Malew - rate freeze at 199p

Marown - rate freeze at 164p

Michael - rate freeze at 144p

Onchan - 326p to 346p, 6.13%

Patrick - 190p to 192p, 1.05%

Peel - 257p to 264p, 2.72%

Port Erin - 316p to 331p, 4.75%

Port St. Mary - 349p to 354p, 1.43%

Ramsey - 415p to 445p, 7.23%

Santon - 129p to 141p, 9.30%